This caused the 21-year-old Spaniard to miss the two final preseason test sessions. And at the first Sepang preseason test, Marquez was untouchable, making his absence even worse for the Repsol Honda team.

And things started slowly at free practice for the opening round of 2014 MotoGP at Qatar’s Losail Circuit. But this wasn’t the case during Saturday’s qualifying – Marquez earned the pole with impressive 1:54.507 around the 3.34-mile circuit containing 16 corners.

Joining Marquez on the front row will be two Open-option machines – the GO&FUN Honda Gresini RC213V piloted by Alvaro Bautista and the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha piloted by Bradley Smith.

Bautista had the provisional pole, but finished qualifying 0.057 of a second back. Smith, who suffered a huge high side during Friday’s FP3, finished only 0.037 of a second behind Bautista. This was his first-ever front-row qualifying result.

Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso placed the Ducati Team GP14, which runs under the Open-option rules, qualified fourth on top of the second row. He will be joined by Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo, who took the last two wins at Losail, and Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa. The latter two have both struggled at Losail.

LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl qualifying seventh, 0.364 of a second behind Marquez, and will be joined by Q1 participant Ducati Team’s Cal Crutchlow.

Rounding out the top 10 was NGM Forward Racing’ Yamaha’sAleix Espargaro and Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi. Espargaro led the first three free practice sessions by a huge margin, but appeared to succumb to the pressure of Q2, crashing twice.

Search

Stay Connected

If it has two wheels, Ultimate Motorcycling has the inside scoop. From the latest motorcycle and apparel reviews, to MotoGP results and OEM sales reports, Ultimate Motorcycling covers it all. Our small but passionate staff works endlessly to deliver quality and enjoyable motorcycle content.